We are an artistic community seeking to give words to our creative impulses.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

About Canadian War Artists

How interesting is this? Wikipedia has a lengthy entry on War Artists and Canadian artists are there. I did not realize that several of our Group of Seven fall into this category, for instance, Varley, Lismer and Jackson. If I ever knew this, I'd forgot it.

Meanwhile, under Recent Conflicts, the name Edward Zuber appears. Ted Zuber painted scenes from the Korean war and I am thrilled to see that some of his work will be presented in the next show at the gallery, the of which is WAR. How amazing it that?

Come and meet Ted Zuber at the vernissage on August 4/11.

Canadian

Representative works by Canada's artists whose work illustrates and records war are gathered into the extensive collection of the Canadian War Museum. A few First World War paintings were exhibited in the Canadian Senate Chamber, and artists studied these works as a way of preparing to create new artworks in the conflict in Europe which expanded after 1939.[71]

“

"The war art commissions brought intense focus to the observation of Canada's role in international conflict .... A driving need for a strong national identity urged First and Second World War artists toward symbolism. While these vivid images are of a now distant past, they continue to communicate their messages to us, and so never lose their relevance."[72]

”

In the Second World War, Canada expanded its an official art program;[71] and Canadian war artists were a kind of journalist who lived the lives of soldiers.[72] The work of other "non-official," civilian artists became part of the record of this period. Canada supported "official war artists" in both the First World War and the Second World War; however, no official artists were designated during the Korean War.[73]
Among Canada's embedded artist-journalist teams was Richard Johnson, who was sent by the National Post to Afghanistan in 2007; and his drawings of Canadian troops were published and posted online as part of a serial "Kandahar Journal."[74]